


A Christmas Market

by Multiple_Universes



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 10:04:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13051794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multiple_Universes/pseuds/Multiple_Universes
Summary: The Doctor, Vicki and Steven land in the middle of a Christmas market and try to find something to take as a memento with them.





	A Christmas Market

**Author's Note:**

> This is my fic for the Classic Who and EU Doctor Who Secret Santa Exchange! My gift is for rassilon-imprimatur on Tumblr, who asked for First Doctor, Steven, and Vicki Christmas shopping.

“Doctor! Steven! Come look at this!” Vicki exclaimed.

They turned at the sound of their names and joined her to see what had caught the girl’s attention.

And it really was something to get excited about: a little gingerbread house lay on the table, covered in white icing and candies. Little gingerbread figures of children and adults circled the house. In the corner stood a Christmas tree made all out of white icing and covered in little candies. The whole sight was so sweet and colourful that it brought a smile to everyone’s faces.

“Hm! Very interesting!” the Doctor said, holding a finger to his mouth. His eyes twinkled as if he was in on some great secret he wasn’t going to share with anyone.

“What is this made form?” Steven asked and Vicki glared at him. How could he reduce something so wonderful to a stupid question like that?

“Gingerbread,” the Doctor answered. He talked about the sugary coating, making Vicki’s mouth water.

They’d landed in the middle of the market completely by accident (as usual) and wandered around a little before the Doctor put his hands on his lapels and declared authoritatively that they were in something called a Christmas Market. Both Vicki and Steven listened politely to the Doctor’s explanation of what Christmas was during this time period. “This time period” being the beginning of the 21st century, according to the Doctor.

Vicki was fascinated by everything from the little toy trains that went around in circles, to the adorable stuffed animals, to the trees decorated with glass and plastic ornaments.

Could she persuade the Doctor to buy something for her as a memento? They never had any money with them, but maybe he would think of something.

Now she stared down at the gingerbread house and people, suppressing a sigh as she thought about how impossible it was to take the whole thing with her back to the TARDIS.

“Maybe something small,” Steven murmured quietly into her ear, as if he’d read her thoughts, as the Doctor’s lecture went on somewhere in the background.

She gave him a grateful smile.

“What we really need to do is try some Christmas pudding,” the Doctor said, cutting his lecture short. “Come with me. We’re bound to find something.”

Vicki and Steven exchanged excited looks and followed the Doctor through the crowd until they found a vendor.

It looked and smelled delicious. It wasn’t just Christmas pudding he sold either (or slices of it, to be more precise), but all kinds of delicious food. Vicki listened impatiently to the Doctor describe all of the food available. At this point it really didn’t matter what they got as long as they got something.

Unable to wait any longer, she pointed to one of the slices of Christmas pudding and asked, “How much is it?”

The man’s answer made no sense to her, but she looked at the Doctor as if it was a perfectly sensible amount that she expected him to pay.

The Doctor tut-tutted and mumbled something before turning out his pockets.

At first it was annoying to watch him pull items that weren’t money out of his pockets. A pen, a paperclip, a handkerchief, a piece of string were all produced and then slipped into another pocket for safekeeping. But then the objects started to get more interesting and Vicki and Steven found themselves playing a game of “guess which object the Doctor will pull out next”.

“A book!” Vicki exclaimed.

“A ring!” Steven guessed.

The Doctor produced a small leather pouch that held a piece of paper with his picture on it.

“What is that?” Vicki asked, forgetting why they were going through the Doctor’s pockets for a moment.

“My library card,” the Doctor answered. “I used it to go to the library and borrow books,” he added helpfully.

“My guess was closest!” Vicki exclaimed. She’d been keeping score.

So far Vicki had been winning.

The Doctor pulled another curious object out and told them it was called a sextant.

“Listen,” Steven interfered, seeing that the search through the Doctor’s pockets was getting really out of hand, “surely that’s worth something. Can’t we… I don’t know, exchange it for the pudding?”

The Doctor gave Steven a look. “Don’t be silly, boy! The barter system isn’t used in this century.”

“If it will get you to leave any faster,” the vendor cut in, “then I’m willing to trade three slices for the thing you’ve got there.”

“Trade pudding for this? And why would I agree to that, hmm? Do you have any idea how much this is worth?” the Doctor demanded. “Or who I got it from?”

“Fine. Fine,” the vendor interrupted before the Doctor could lecture them about the sextant.” Then take them for free, just get out of my sight!”

With an indignant “hmph!” the Doctor handed a slice each to Steven and Vicki, took one himself and walked away as if he’d done the merchant a big honour by agreeing to take his puddings for free.

Steven and Vicki exchanged a glance and burst out laughing.

“Trust the Doctor to be good at haggling!” Steven exclaimed.

They walked side by side with the Doctor just a few steps ahead of them. Vicki bit into her slice of pudding happily as snowflakes started to fall and snow crunched underfoot. Her heart filled with a wonderful warm feeling. Everything was just perfect.

Music drifted over to them from another stall. “ _Oh, there’s no place like home for the holidays, ’cause no matter how far away you roam, if you wanna to be happy in a million ways for the holidays you can’t beat home sweet home!_ ”

The wonderful warm feeling melted away. She thought of her home, so far away in space and time, and her parents – dead, even if technically they hadn’t even been born yet. She felt tears rise to her eyes and a lump form in her throat.

Home. Where was home for her, her, who was stuck forever travelling from place to place with nowhere to go?

She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up into Steven’s worried face.

“Is something wrong?” he asked.

A few steps away the Doctor was watching her with an expression that told her that he knew exactly what had been going through her mind, knew and understood. And here was Steven, who’d looked out for her and protected her all this time. What did home mean for her if not the two of them and the TARDIS?

She threw her arms around Steven, trapping him in a hug. “No, I’m fine.”

“Vicki!” he exclaimed and then patted her on the back. “Well, if you’re sure.”

She nodded and released him to go up to the Doctor.

He backed away, as if afraid that she would hug him too.

“You have so many interesting things in your pockets,” she said, “and I was thinking…” She paused wickedly and waited to see his reaction.

“Yes?” he asked. “What is it, child?”

“I want something of my own, something to remember this trip by,” she told him.

“Alright,” he said and she threw her arms around him too.

They took their time looking for something Vicki could take with her. She spent forever unable to decide what she wanted and then argued with the Doctor, who wouldn’t let her get more than one thing.

Finally she settled on something and the three travellers returned to the TARDIS, making jokes about where they would end up next.

With a loud trumpeting noise the TARDIS disappeared as if it had never been there.

A figure stepped out of the shadows and contemplated the place where the TARDIS had been in silence.

Another figure soon joined the first one. “I’d say the experiment was a success,” it said. “The Doctor made a thorough inspection of this set-up and didn’t suspect a thing.”

“True,” the first figure agreed. “We are ready to move forward with our plans.”

“Excellent, then I’ll have the time lock in place shortly.”

The first figure dismissed the second one with a simple gesture.

The image of the Christmas market flickered and vanished. The figure walked away to where its spacecraft stood waiting.

And the asteroid that had stood in for 21st century Earth continued on its way through space as if nothing had ever happened.

Not long after that, in terms of relative time, one little event in the 21st century was slightly altered and all of human history got derailed.

But that is a story for another time…

**Author's Note:**

> For those who don’t know it, [this is the song that Vicki hears](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHDgzQ6eQw4).


End file.
